Games Piracy Continues to Grow, Becoming a Concern

arma3

These days, it's practically impossible for a game company to prevent piracy.  Bohemia Interactive's FADE protection system is about as good as it gets, but even that hasn't stopped people from obtaining illegal copies of games.

According to new data gathered by research firm and internet piracy analysts Envisional, the number of pirated video games has increased by 20% in the last five years.  This obviously worries publishers who are concerned with losing millions in lost revenue to illegal downloads.  Just look at how much potential money DICE and EA lost due to Battlefield 3 pirates.

Now, I know what you're all thinking, "Piracy doesn't necessarily mean lost sales because it was never a guarantee that those people would have purchased the game."  I've heard it time and time again.  And taking into account Envisional's claim that the top five most successful games of 2010 were illegally downloaded almost one million times,  I'd have to say those are definitely potential sales.  These games probably include Call of Duty: Black Ops, MW2, Bad Company 2, Mass Effect 2, or games along those lines.  People usually know what they are going to get with these games before release.

Games like those don't require the excuse "I wanted to download it to see if I would like it.  Then I buy the game." If that's the case then why not just rent it? Just man up and say you were too cheap to dish out the over-priced $60 for the game.  Don't try to deny it by saying you just wanted to "test" the game.